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Monster second half makes Alyssa Thomas' final home game at Maryland a sweet memory

Maryland's Alyssa Thomas (a Central Dauphin grad) plays her last home game at Maryland

Maryland forward Alyssa Thomas plays in her last basketball game at Comcast Center in College Park, MD Tuesday night in the 2nd round of the 2014 NCAA Women's Championship. Thomas played at Central Dauphin High School and tonight the Terrapins take on the Texas Longhorns. Maryland won 69-64.
(Mark Pynes | mpynes@pennlive.com)

The former high school
All-American from Central Dauphin didn't panic, though. Her high school coach,
Bill Wolf, was in the stands and said he was "confident" Thomas would figure it
out.

For all the athletic gifts
Thomas was blessed with as a basketball player, and all those hours of work the
6-2 forward has put in to become one of the best players in the country,
there's one often overlooked aspect about Thomas that's sometimes gets lost.

As talented and selfless as she
is as a player and person, Thomas is one of the smartest athletes you'll ever
watch.

Showing the patience and
savvy of a confident veteran, Thomas let the game come to her and had a monster
second half to send Maryland to the Sweet 16 with a 69-64 victory over the
Longhorns.

Thomas had all of her
team-high 16 in the final 20 minutes and seven of her 11 rebounds to record
double-double No. 26 in 33 games this season.

"I was struggling to score.
Some of my teammates had the hot hand. Why not go to them? I just knew I had to
be patient and wait for my time and the game to come to me," said Thomas, who
will make her third trip to the Sweet 16 where No. 4 seed Maryland will face
No. 1 seed Tennessee.

"My teammates told me at
halftime not to be worried just because you haven't scored yet. Just get to the
basket, and things will open up for me."

Thomas, despite her elite
status in the women's college game, has always deferred to her teammates -
almost to a fault – instead of taking all the credit. It's just her nature.

But in the first half of this
wildly entertaining game with a young and scrappy Texas outfit, Thomas'
teammates literally had her back for the opening 20 minutes.

Behind eight points off the
bench by Laurin Mincy, the Terrapins and Longhorns went to halftime deadlock at
31.

"I can't remember the last
time I've seen Alyssa with zero points and we were tied at halftime," Maryland
coach Brenda Frese said. "I am really happy for our seniors to be able to
continue with a win in their final game on home court."

On Maryland's first possession
of the second half, Thomas registered a nifty assist, and that familiar hop in
her step that was absent in the first half was suddenly back.

Her first points came at the
18:18 mark of the second half, and in the next 120 seconds she added five more
to put seven quick points on the board as Maryland quickly surged to a
nine-point lead.

"There were times in the game
where we had breakdowns and were a little scattered on her defensively. It also
has to do with how great she is," Texas coach Karen Aston said. "I thought we
did a really nice job on her. She forces her will on you. And that's what great
players do."

Texas rallied from nine
points down with 3:15 remaining and had two cracks at a grabbing the lead in
the final minute.

Appropriately, when Texas
missed a triple with less than 10 seconds remaining that would have given the
Longhorns the lead, Thomas snared the defensive rebound and was immediately
fouled.

The best player in Maryland
basketball history had two free throws to ice the victory and send the
Terrapins to the Sweet 16.

Of course she made them. You
don't become the all-time leading scorer in Maryland basketball history by
missing free throws with a berth in the Sweet 16 hanging in the balance.

"It was a great team effort.
We knew we needed a stop and I was able to secure the rebound," Thomas said. "It
was relief just to know we had this one in the bag."